LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMEEICA. 



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ORIGIN JIISrQIRY. AND UTILITY, 



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EMBEACISG A CAREFUL EEVIEff OF THE SABBATH 
QUESTION. 

y 

BY S. C. SWALLOW, 

Of the Central Pennsylvania Conference, M. E. Church. 



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NE^AT YORK: 
NELSON & PHILLIPSV 

CINCINNATI: 
HITCHCOCK & ^TV^ALDEN. 

1879. 









Copyright 1878, by 

S. C. SWA LLO W 

Tyrone, Pa. 



PREFACE 



THESE pages, hastily written, amid the press 
of other work, were prompted by the request 
of brethren esteemed in the ministry and laity, as, 
also, by a sincere desire to promote the interests of 
our beloved Church. By thus calling attention to 
the origin, history, and utility of Camp-meetings, 
the author hopes to aid in correcting some abuses, 
and to assist in placing this distinctive institution 
of our Church under such conditions as shall ren- 
der it, in a prudential sense, like the Gospel it 
proclaims, " the power of God unto salvation." 

He gratefully acknowledges the help afforded 
him by the standard histories of the Church, and 
the aid of the large number of brethren con- 
nected with, or stationed near, our principal en- 
campments. The latter was secured in answer to 
a circular letter, embracing, among many others, 
the following questions : *' Is the real estate of 
your camp-meeting association deeded in trust to 
the Methodist Episcopal Church ? How many of 
your trustees are members of the Methodist Epis- 
copal-Church .? How many tents or cottages are 
there on the ground ? What percentage of regular 
attendants are members of the Methodist Episco- 



4 Preface. 

pal Church ? Do special trains run to the encamp- 
ment on the Sabbath day, or do regular trains 
stop at the grounds ? Are the gates of your camp 
closed over Sabbath ? How many are annually 
converted ? (Average.) What has the meeting 
done for Methodism in the patronizing territory ? 
In your judgment, have camp-meetings, as con- 
ducted by the Methodist Episcopal Church for 
the last ten years, and by smaller denominations 
that pattern after us, been a means of advancing 
the moral and spiritual interests of the patronizing 
territory ? " etc., etc. 

We have endeavored to make these pages the 
brief embodiment of the logical inferences drawn 
from the premises thus kindly furnished. We 
may not pencil a pleasing outline for those whose 
"love of what is ours'* is so ardent as to reject 
unpalatable truths concerning the Church of their 
choice, but have ventured the presumption that 
we are sufficiently removed from our Church cen- 
tennial inflation epoch to be willing " to see our- 
selves as others see us,^' and " to be painted as we 
are^'' if a sight of the picture will but aid us in 
improving the original. If we adhere to the ethic, 
rather than the apologetic,, side of our subject, it 
is because the latter is already overdone, and will 
find a new field for conquest in the pages that 
follow. 

Tyrone, Sept. i8, 1878. 



CONTENTS 



CBAFTEB PAOX 

I. Camp-meetings : their Origin, History, and 
Utility . , 7 

II. Camp-meetings : their Helps and Hinderances 
— Abuses and their Origin — Responsibility. . 18 

III. Camp-Meetings and Sabbath Desecration 24 

IV. Camp-Meetings: their Utility further Con- 

sidered — Arguments and Objections An- 
swered 48 

V. How to Make the Camp-Meeting Successful 
— Scaffolding — Popular Resorts — Reasons 
FOR Closing Gates on Sabbath 53 

VI. Altar Work — Seed and Harvest — Polly 
ScROGGs— Preparation and Concentration — 
Personal Effort — Dress — Cause and Effect 
— Conclusion 61 



CAMP-MEETINGS 



CHAPTER I. 

Camp-meetings: their Origin, History, and Utility, 

IN the year 1799 two brothers, preachers, 
John and WiUiam M'Gee, the former a Meth- 
odist, and the latter a Presbyterian, both serv- 
ing congregations in West Tennessee, set off on 
a tour through what was called ''The Barrens," 
toward the State of Ohio. On their way they 
stopped at a settlement on Red River to at- 
tend a sacramental service in the congrega- 
tion under the pastoral charge of the Rev. 
Mr. M'Gready, a Presbyterian minister. John 
M'Gee (the Methodist) was invited to preach, 
which he did with much power. This sermon 
was followed by others, preached by William 
M'Gee and another Presbyterian minister, 
named Hoge, which produced "such a power- 
ful effect that tears in abundance attested that 
the people felt the force of the truths deliv- 
ered." The public excitement became in- 
tense. The meetings were continued, and 
people in great numbers came great distances 
to witness and attend them. The house being 



8 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 

too small, a grove was selected, a stand built, 
and the people, provided with food for a siege, 
lived for several days in their wagons, in rude 
tents of cloth hastily improvised, and in huts 
made of the boughs of the forest trees. 

The Methodist M'Gee preached the first 
camp-meeting sermon. His brother minister, 
Presbyterian, attempted to preach the second, 
but could not, so wonderfully was he affected 
by the Spirit's power. Forgetting his prepara- 
tion, he adopted the Paultne method of teUing 
his experience, and closed with a rousing ex- 
hortation, under which sinners fell as dead 
men, and cries and groans were heard on every 
hand. The slain of the Lord were many, and 
shouts of victory quickly succeeded groans of 
remorse. 

Similar meetings, in which Methodists, Pres- 
byterians, and Baptists joined, were soon held, 
attracting people hundreds of miles. It is be- 
lieved that from twenty to thirty thousand 
persons attended some of those earlier meet- 
ings, and that, too, in a country but sparsely 
settled. 

The first flush of excitement over, the Pres- 
byterian friends remembered their dispassion- 
ate antecedents, and published their disfavor 
of such unwarrantable irregularities. These 
meetings, however, had created a demand 
among them for more preachers than their 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath, g 

schools, combined with immigration, could fur- 
nish ; hence deeply pious but uneducated lay- 
men, professing to be called by the Spirit, 
were appointed to preach by the Presbytery 
of Transylvania, but, their reception being 
strenuously opposed by some of the clergy, 
they were refused ordination. The Cumber- 
land Presbytery, however, having more liberal 
views, not only granted them ordination, but 
received on trial others similarly disqualified ; 
for which it was censured by the Synod of Ken- 
tucky. This censure being appealed from, was 
confirmed by the General Assembly, which 
caused the Cumberlands to withdraw from its 
jurisdiction, and in the year 1810 to organize 
the Cumberland Presbyterian Church ; a body 
now numbering nearly one hundred and fifty 
thousand communicants. It holds middle 
ground in doctrine between Calvinism and 
Arminianism, and has an itinerant ministry. 

The Methodists, with little temporal prestige, 
churches few, small, and scattered, a new peo- 
ple on new soil, followed the leadings of Prov- 
idence in favoring camp-meetings, and held 
them with marked success throughout the 
country. 

In 1807 Lorenzo Dow, in the course of his 
wanderings, visited England, and there intro- 
duced the American camp-meetings. The 
Wesleyan Conference of the same year de- 



lo Camp-meetings and the Sabbath, 

clared that, " however allowable such meetings 
might be in America, they were highly im- 
proper in England, and likely to be produc- 
tive of considerable mischief, and we disclaim 
all connection with them." A controversy en- 
sued among the members of this body, that 
terminated in the expulsion from the society 
of about two hundred members. Among the 
number were William Clows, a local preacher, 
and Hugh Bourne, an influential layman and 
a church trustee, both zealous advocates of 
camp-meetings. 

The out-door meetings were continued, the 
converts formed into classes, and the Primitive 
Methodist Connection organized in 1810. In 
1877 it numbered, including its ministers, over 
two hundred thousand members. 

In America camp-meetings served to intro- 
duce and give homogeneity to a membership 
otherwise estranged and heterogeneous. They 
supplied the place of large churches by fur- 
nishing room for the thousands. They drew 
the masses of other Churches, and leavened 
them with a new theology; these, in turn, 
bringing new utterances from their own pul- 
pits. They partook of the rugged character of 
their natural surroundings ; the towering for- 
ests, rocky heights, flowing streams, and open 
sky, added to the inspiration of the preacher, 
and wondejrfully emphasized his fervid words, 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 1 1 

that spoke of impending danger and prof- 
fered succor — of a yawning hell, a glorious 
heaven, and a dying, living, and interceding 
Saviour. 

Justification, adoption, the witness of the 
Spirit, sanctification — immediate, clear, satis- 
factory — here found most enthusiastic advo- 
cates and faithful adherents. 

The compensation, compared with the cost, 
of these meetings was great. The habits of 
the people were simple, their necessities few. 
The taste for a luxurious living, that impinges 
on the sensual and jeopardizes spirituality, had 
not yet been cultivated nor indulged. Sacri- 
fices, however, were often made in preparing 
for and attending camp-meetings, that shame 
those of better opportunities. To the youth- 
ful reader a brief description of that which 
rapid development has rendered almost obso- 
lete may be interesting. 

Tents with shingle roofs, carpeted floors, 
and papered walls, were then unheard-of lux- 
uries, while cottages with historic names, 
costing thousands of dollars, with all the ap- 
pointments and surroundings of city elegance, 
were unthought of. A few yards of muslin, 
that could be made to do double duty, first 
as tent, then as wearing apparel ; a few rude 
benches, frequently improvised from provis- 
ion boxes ; a table of the same material, or of 



12 Camp-meetings and the Sabbat Ji. 

rough boards supported by sticks cut from 
the site of the tent ; beds of straw and blank- 
ets ; sheets suspended from the tent roof for 
partitions, formed dormitory, parlor, sitting- 
room, and furniture; while all out-doors — not 
preempted by the neighbors — constituted a 
spacious kitchen, with blazing fire, endless 
chimney, and the accompaniments of shade, 
shelter, and sunshine. Or, perchance, a covered 
wagon supplied the aforenamed apartments 
for a whole family, and for all the neighbors 
as guests. 

These denizens of the wood were not there 
to fish, except for men ; nor hunt, except for 
the lost ; nor yet to play croquet. Neither had 
they time to boat, coquet, or talk finance, poli- 
tics, or law. Here were children whose way- 
ward lives had cost fond parents many sleep- 
less nights of prayer and weeping; husbands, 
over whose sinful living affectionate wives had 
long interceded ; parents, whose children's pi- 
ous example was to them an abiding reproof. 
Here were neighbors, employers, and em- 
t>loyes^ brought to the meeting by earnest 
appeals ; sometimes by a strategy as deep as 
was the ardor of the zeal that prompted it. 
Here all the soldiers of the King, disciplined 
by lives of "watchfulness unto prayer" — by 
*^ faith's strong grip, where reason lost its 
hold " — by trial, labor, and pain — massed their 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 13 

forces for the defeat and capture of his rebel 
subjects. 

These meetings were often held at the ex- 
pense of a cultivated taste, since formalism and 
etiquette were sacrificed on the altar of a com- 
passionate zeal. Modulated tones, studied 
postures, artistic singing, and rhetorical ser- 
mons were at a discount with those whose 
home efforts had failed to save their friends, es- 
pecially so since this might be the last chance. 
They had not been privileged with the im- 
proved (?) teachings of our day, or, if they had, 
were slow to learn. They regarded hell as a 
place, and a bad one ; heaven as another 
"place, and a good one ; while no mercy-bridge 
had yet been made to span the -''fixed gulf" 
between the two. To them the devil was a 
person ; so was the Holy Ghost. The latter 
reproved the sinner of sin, and assured him of 
pardon when forgiven. Death was the end of 
probation's only stadium, and introduced its 
captive or its captor to the wail of eternal re- 
morse or to the triumphant shout of everlast- 
ing joy. Realizing these truths, no wonder 
they were in earnest ! 

The camp-meeting was sometimes a fine field 
for the discipline and display of muscular 
Christianity. The roughs of society, encouraged 
too often by more refined persecutors, would 
take advantage of defective law — or no law — 



14 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 

to annoy, and, if possible, destroy the meeting. 
Hooting, yelling, whistling, and the discharge 
of fire-arms, were sometimes the signals for a 
charge upon the altar or the preachers' stand ; 
but they were the signals, too, for a counter 
charge *'by men unused to fear." They were not 
as deliberate as was the Quaker who said to the 
burglar in his house, " Friend, look out ; I'm 
going to shoot just where thee stands;" but, 
striking right and left, would put to flight the 
alien armies. Sometimes they captured the 
leaders, and extorted promises of good behavior, 
often to be fulfilled in godly sorrow and com- 
plete reformation. 

These early camp-meetings were generally 
held at the expense of a rigid observance of 
the Christian Sabbath ; people often going long 
distances in the morning, returning in the even- 
ing, and coming in contact on the road and 
in the encampment with influences damaging 
to moral character. Yet let it ever be re- 
membered that — not as now — their errand was 
to hear truths not preached in Churches which 
they left or passed. The tables where was 
regularly spread the food for which the fam- 
ishing souls of the unfed masses of this new 
nation hungered were " few and far between." 
Nor let it be forgotten, that, as estimated by 
these pioneers, the shock to refined taste, and 
the cost to muscular force and Sabbath ob- 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath, 15 

servance, found ample -compensation in the 
hundreds often converted at a single meeting, 
and in the revival fire carried to home Churches, 
and to points in the wilderness where no Gospel 
had yet been preached. Thus frequently were 
formed the nuclei for new classes, Churches, 
and Sunday-schools. Thus, too, were often 
laid the foundations for church buildings, and 
for that growth in temporal and spiritual pros- 
perity characteristic of our first century. As 
it was in the older States fifty years ago, so is 
it now in many of the new ones. 

The great white throng of the apocalyptic 
vision has received recruits by myriads from the 
ranks of our camp-meeting converts through 
all these years ; while many of the most effi- 
cient workers and liberal givers of other com- 
munions, as well as our own, have received in- 
delible religious impressions, if not their seal 
of pardon, amid the excellent glory of these 
tabernacle gatherings. 

Conferences, churches, and ministers multi- 
plied. Large circuits were divided and sub- 
divided. Stations were formed where needed ; 
some, where not needed. Our membership in- 
creased in half a century from a handful to a 
million and a half, and our ministry from a 
few hundred to ten thousand. 

The increase of ministerial service ; the pro- 
tracted revival efforts, continuing sometimes 



1 6 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath, 

for months, with two services on Sabbath, and, 
in many places, every night in the week ; the 
breaking down of denominational prejudices, 
and the preaching from most pulpits of our 
land of a present, free, and full salvation ; the 
contrast between home comforts and luxuries 
and the absence of them at the average en- 
campment, coupled with the difficulty of pre- 
serving order, together with a marked decrease 
in the number of conversions, suggested and 
hastened in our older conferences the discon- 
tinuance of the old-time Methodist camp- 
meeting. 

Meanwhile, however, earnest efforts were 
being made to perpetuate the departing power 
and glory of camp-meetings by utilizing the 
popular love for them, so long fostered, as 
also the facilities for travel, and the growing 
demands for rural rest. To this end organi- 
zations were effected under acts of incorpora- 
tion ; grounds were rented or bought, and re- 
rented or sold, by some associations. Thus 
towns have grown up, with a few permanent 
and many transient residents, and been chris- 
tened with euphonious names, followed by the 
term camp-meeting. Other associations erect- 
ed tents or cottages, to be rented to camp- 
dwellers during the camp-meeting or the sea- 
son, much attention being paid to laying out 
and improving the grounds, and to the physical 



Camp-meetings and tJie Sabbath. ly 

comfort and convenience of the tent-holders 
and visitors. At this time the large encamp- 
ments claimed by our own denomination num- 
ber nearly one hundred ; to which may be added 
very many smaller ones, permanent or tran- 
sient. 

Some other denominations, having adopted 
or modified our form of government, accepted 
our standard doctrines, and appropriated much 
of our machinery, have not been slow to adjust 
themselves to this department of Church en- 
terprise. 



18 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 



CHAPTER II. 

Camp-meetings: their Helps and Hinderances— Abuses anj 
THEIR Origin— Responsibility. 

MANY of the associations spoken of in 
the preceding chapter were organized 
under the most favorable conditions for spirit- 
ual results, and controlled by men of wisdom 
and piety ; men whose first and constant aim 
is the conversion of souls and the strengthen- 
ing of the Church. The meetings held under 
their direction have been wonderfully success- 
ful, a blessing to those attending, and a source 
of immense moral power to the Churches 
within the radius of their influence. 

Other associations, however — alas, how 
many ! — conceived by a spirit of speculation, 
and born of worldly affection ; or, perchance, 
originated by men of good motives but low 
standard of morals ; have incorporated many 
of the objectionable features of the early camp- 
meeting, with few or none of its redeeming 
traits. The meetings thus organized and con- 
trolled have been a reproach to our Church, 
and in some cases a disgrace to the Christian 
religion. The saddest thought in this connec- 
tion is, that many of us of the ministry have, 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 19 

perhaps unintentionally, become partners in 
the wrong by quietly acquiescing, or but fee- 
bly remonstrating. 

It is an anomaly in Church history which 
finds striking parallels in the secular orders 
of Romanism in the ecclesiastical world and 
in the transportation "lines" connected with 
railroads in the commercial world that Meth- 
odism should permit the purchase and dispo- 
sal, in her name, of valuable real estate, 
amounting to hundreds of thousands of dol- 
lars, yet not, in the language of the Discipline, 
" deeded in trust that said premises shall be 
used, kept, maintained, and disposed of as a 
place of divine worship ;" nor yet as a place of 
resort, (?) or retreat, (?) or amusement ; (?) nor 
" for the use," in any way, '' of the ministry and 
membership of the M. E. Church ; " but deeded 
simply to trustees or directors, and their suc- 
cessors in office. 

In some of their charters all of the trustees 
must be members of the M. E. Church ; in 
others, two thirds of them ; in others, a ma- 
jority; while in many others even this pre- 
caution is not taken, and we find Methodist 
camp-meetings, so called, controlled by mem- 
bers of other Churches, and even non-pro- 
fessors, blasphemers, drunkards, gamblers, and 
liquor-sellers — men who care less for Method- 
ism than does the hireling for the flock. True, 



20 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 

the act of incorporation may make a Meth- 
odist presiding elder or pastor the ex-officio 
manager of its meetings ; but since the direct- 
ors control the question of Sunday traffic, 
amusements, collections, and general order, 
the spiritual director becomes an ex-officio 
cipher, and the spiritual interests of the meet- 
ing are largely dependent on the good-will of 
a body of men who, like Demetrius, are more 
interested in their craft than in the Gospel, or, 
like Simon the sorcerer, would " make gain 
of godliness." 

Many of these organizations are amenable 
to no department of the Church whose banner 
they set up, and by means of whose bugle call 
they entice the people to their patronage. 
They can with equal facility defy the legis- 
lative, judicial, and executive departments of 
our economy. The acts of Quarterly, Annual, 
and General Conferences may by them be re- 
garded with indifference or contempt. The 
respectful requests — touching moral questions 
— of bishops, presiding elders, pastors, and 
Church officers (even though tenting on their 
grounds) may be tossed in air as carelessly as 
does the athlete his club, or the acrobat his 
sand bag. These mixed boards of manage- 
ment, answerable only to themselves, to the 
stock-holders, (themselves again,) and to the 
civil law, which they frequently violate, may 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 21 

take it upon themselves to make and unmake 
presiding elders, or even bishops, or perchance 
to say who shall fill important stations in 
their patronizing territory, only those preach- 
ers being eligible who indorse and advertise 
their camp-meeting as it is. 

The general conduct of the temporalities of 
the encampment may be such as to chagrin 
Methodist laymen who care for the good name 
of their Church and the morals of society, and 
so to prevent their attendance ; but then, such 
inducements of health, recreation, and good 
living may be held out to the general public 
as shall fill the tents and cottages with those 
of other communions, and of no communion. 
These, with the formalists of our own Church, 
may constitute a dress-parading, pleasure-seek- 
ing community, ready to tacitly thank the 
Methodists for providing a respectable popu- 
lar resort, and so much cheaper, too, than is 
Saratoga, Cape May, or Long Branch. They 
may hsten attentively to the word preached ; 
or, which is more probable, herd together ac- 
cording to caste or social affinity, and even 
refuse to hear the Gospel when brought to 
their tent doors. 

It might occur that this temporizing policy 
should infect many of the preachers, particu- 
larly the younger ones, each of whom, called 
upon to preach but one of the thirty sermons 



22 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath, 

necessary for the ten days, and hearing much 
complaint against the plainness of those pre- 
ceding him, made by the fashionable hearers 
with itching ears, or by the stock-holding di- 
rectors with itching palms, should make " the 
cross of Christ a peg on which to hang his 
tawdry rags of speech," and leave the stand 
on which his flowery periods and ornate sen- 
tences had been exhibited amid hosannas to 
the preacher instead of halleluias to Jesus. 

It might occur, that the curiosity of the 
people should, from service to service, be so 
wrought upon by the announcement of com- 
ing great men — who, perhaps, do not arrive — 
as that Jesus should be left without, in the 
manger of the stable of their thoughts and af- 
fections. 

It might occur, that many of the young peo- 
ple, children of the members of other Churches 
tenting on the grounds, should become con- 
victed and converted, or, enamored with our 
methods or charmed with our simplicity, pie- 
ty, or zeal, become members of our Church, 
and thus subject us to the charge of proselyt- 
ing ; but it has not so occurred, to any great 
extent, for many years. It has happened, that 
many of our own young people, brought in 
contact with those who sneer at the apparent 
extravagances of the few simple souls who 
think themselves at camp-meeting, and sing, 



Camp-meetings and the' Sabbath. 23 

pray, and shout as in other years, are thus led 
into other Churches, the members of which 
have abandoned their own effete doctrines, and 
are now teaching our theology, singing our 
songs, manipulating our machinery, compli- 
menting our greatness, and accommodating 
our members. 



24 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 



CHAPTER III. 

Camp-meetings and Sabbath Desecration. 

To prayer ! for the day that God has blest 

Comes tranquilly on, with its welcome rest. 

It speaks of creation's early bloom ; 

It speaks of the Prince who burst the tomb. 

Then summon the spirit's exalted powers, 

And devote to heaven the hallowed hours. — Ware, 

PERHAPS the most flagrant abuses con- 
nected with the irresponsible mismanage- 
ment of many modern encampments are the 
incentives to, and the occasion furnished for, 
Sabbath desecration. 

We state a fact patent to all when we say 
that there has been in this country during the 
twenty years last past a lamentable lowering 
of the public estimate of the sanctity of the 
Christian Sabbath. This, in part at least, has 
grown out of the immense accessions to our 
population from the debauched classes of the 
old world. Many of them '' left their country 
for their country's good," and are the legiti- 
mate product of a statecraft that knows no 
Sabbath. 

It is, too, the result of the indirect briber}* 
practiced by great corporations in whose arith- 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 25 

metic the God-force is not a factor, as well as 
of the Sabbath marching, fortress building, and 
fighting, incident to the most gigantic war of 
modern times. 

True, we have won some decisive victories 
over the moral Vandals who seek to pervert lib- 
erty into license, but more frequently we have 
yielded without a struggle, or been intoxicated 
with ephemeral success. Like Hannibal, who, 
at the head of the Carthaginians defeated the 
Romans, and then engaged in drunkenness and 
rioting till defeated in turn by the valiant 
Scipio, so we have huzzaed so lustily over the 
Sabbath closing of an exhibition occurring but 
once in a hundred years, and lasting even then 
but for six months, that we have failed to re- 
cover sufficient breath to more than feebly 
remonstrate against opening the same gates to 
a gaping, godless crowd through all the Sab- 
baths of the year, and, if God forbear, through 
the uncounted years of the oncoming future. 

Our Sabbath laws are practically a dead let- 
ter : first, because of the general indifference to 
their existence, violation, and execution ; and, 
secondly, because of the loose interpretation 
placed upon them by our courts. Corpora- 
tions — by threats of no work and no bread — 
compel large forces of men to engage on the 
Sabbath day on works of construction or re- 
pairs, because thus time is economized, and 



26 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 

time is money. Stock trains must run through 
on Sunday, because to unload and rest the 
stock would make it cost the speculator a half 
cent more per pound, and cents make dollars, 
and dollars dominate. Coal trains started on 
Saturday evening must run all day on Sun- 
day to reach their destination in the evening, 
or on Monday morning, because trade is dull, 
there are competing roads, and dividends must 
not be passed. Oil trains must be moved for 
the same reason. Mails must be carried and 
post-offices opened because business and pleas- 
ure combine to demand it, and " there are 
millions in it.'' Passenger trains, three a day, 
both ways, fast and slow, must go whistling, 
rattling, and thundering over our land, disturb- 
ing the peace and quiet of large communities, 
insulting the memories of the heroic spirits 
who founded our*empire, and educating Amer- 
ican youth to regard the Sabbath as other 
days. Corporations forget that a conscience 
compulsively educated to defy Divine law, will 
voluntarily defy human codes enacted for the 
protection of persons and property. 

Government stamps its coin, " In God we 
trust," and then insults him by carrying its 
mails, opening its post-offices, dress-parading 
its armies, and doing much department and 
office business on that day which he has com- 
manded to be kept holy. It thus compels the 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 27 

violation ot civil and moral law, and then, for 
some minor offense, shoots the men whose 
consciences it has debauched. Gin mills, beer 
saloons, tobacco shops, drug stores, and in 
many places bazaars of all kinds, solicit and 
receive large Sabbath patronage. 

Iron furnaces, that can at any time without 
serious damage be blank-charged for twenty- 
four hours for repairs, or to settle disputes be- 
tween labor and capital, must run every Sab- 
bath lest they 'V/////," and ruin the proprietors. 

Mine and motive power repairs must be 
made on the Sabbath, that mining and moving 
may proceed regularly on Monday, and no 
money be lost. The farmer garners his grain, 
the woodman floats his lumber, and the pub- 
lisher prints his paper filled with secular 
thought, which finds its way into rehgious 
families to take the place of God's word ; and 
it is all done because human reason has be- 
come more potent in the question of profit 
and loss than is God's law. 

Ministers of Puritan antecedents ride on 
regular railroad trains between their appoint- 
ments, and others, of highest office and standing 
in the Church, make long journeys on the Sab- 
bath, thus helping soulless corporations to an 
apology for contempt of law, and at the same 
time encouraging the moral dissipation of 
their business-loving and pleasure-seeking fel- 



28 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath, 

low-travelers. Others are found among excur- 
sionists on the street cars, against the running 
of which they preached and remonstrated but 
ten years ago. 

For five years, however, God has been 
teaching us to rest, if there can be rest amid 
stagnation, decay, and bankruptcy. Mills, 
looms, mines, and railroads have stood still. 
God has said, "■ Thus far, Avarice, but no far- 
ther." It seems a poetic as well as retributive 
justice that makes the law's penalty so sad a 
reminder of the law's violation. We write 
thus, not as a pessimist, nor yet to censure or 
upbraid, but to bring forward cumulative evi- 
dence of the decadence of the popular esti- 
mate of the holy day. 

Alarming, however, as is the picture just 
painted, a still more dangerous tendency of 
the times is every-where apparent. We refer 
to the disposition to make the Christian Sab- 
bath a holiday — to bring it down to the level 
of the Sabbath of Continental Europe, where 
rural excursions are indulged in by Protestant 
and Romanist alike ; where tea and beer gar- 
dens, theaters, horse-races, boat-races and 
dances, claim and secure the attention of the 
people ; where intemperance, gaming, and 
wasting profligacy prevail to an extent found 
only among the devotees of the revised edition 
of the " Book of Sportsr 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 29 

This peril of the Christian Sabbath is great- 
er than that from mere secularization — first, 
because more subtle ; and, secondly, because 
human laws, venerable with age, are at hand 
to assist reform when right reason and revela- 
tion assert their authority in again defining 
works of necessity and charity. Moral suasion 
will be but little aided by legal prohibition in 
its endeavor to checkmate the ingenious de- 
vices of depraved nature for mere physical rec- 
reation (so called) and amusement, no matter 
how damaging to the mental, moral, and 
material interests of our people. Useful labor 
is less enervating than bacchanalian sports — 
a Sabbath work-day less injurious than a Sab- 
bath play-day ; because the latter squanders 
hard-earned wages that the former would in- 
crease, and begets mischief incident to idle- 
ness. The protest of Christianity and wise 
statesmanship against the one, should be em- 
phasized against the other. 

Already have we made dangerous strides in 
the direction of the Sabbath holiday. Prior to 
the present business depression, railroad cen- 
ters — villages, towns, and cities — under the un- 
natural sthmtlus of war, attracted unwieldy 
populations from other countries, and from the 
rural portions of our own. Misdirected phi- 
lanthropy said that these overcrowded, toiling 
multitudes must have one day in seven in the 



30 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 

country, and that day must be the Sabbath. 
This implied railroad trains, steamboats and 
stages, picnic grounds, sea-side resorts, beer gar- 
dens, and open parks. The Christian Church, 
after feeble remonstrance, yielded to what ap- 
peared to be inevitable, and now grieves over 
the success of infidels, rationalists, Jews, Social- 
ists, and religious formalists, in so far destroying 
the public conscience on so vital an issue. The 
logic of events, as directed by our kind Father, 
demonstrates that these over-crowded myriads 
need seven days each week in the country, 
and thousands are forced to accept the price- 
less boon ; but Sunday excursions have a tena- 
cious hold on the habits of many of our people, 
and they indulge in them, notwithstanding 
God's providence, judgments, and law. 

Now, what has all this to do with camp- 
meetings ? We answer, Much, very much ; or, 
rather, camp-meetings as conducted by us in 
the older States — with few rare exceptions — 
during the last twenty years, have had much 
to do with all this. 

Under the cover of religion — in the livery 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and with 
the purpose of advancing her interests — so- 
called camp-meeting associations have in many 
places been organized. These, by systematic 
advertising of the natural and artistic advan- 
tages of their grounds as places of resort, re- 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath, 3 1 

tirement, or amusement — by coalitions with 
railroad, steamboat, and livery companies — 
by frequent and long-continued announcement 
of the presence on the Sabbath of celebrated 
preachers — and, in truth, by all the devices 
known to a religio-secular policy — have in- 
duced vast crowds of people to go great dis- 
tances on the Lord's day morning only to re- 
turn in the evening. 

In many localities, other denominations that 
pattern after us, with less tact and experience 
and fewer facilities for commanding respect 
and preserving order, have sometimes formed 
a partnership with gamesters, and even rum- 
sellers. Thus the camp-meeting term has been 
continued through much of the warm season, 
the Sabbaths of which have been by large 
numbers devoted to car, carriage, or steamboat 
riding, and promenading, all in the name of re- 
ligion. The logic that encourages our own 
people to go on one Sabbath to our own camp- 
meeting, permits them to spend five Sabbaths 
in going to other camp-meetings, or lays us 
open to the charge of being narrow bigots. 

These Sabbath camp-visitors are astir at an 
early hour. The streets resound with the rum- 
ble of their vehicles, or the rapid tread of their 
hurrying feet, as they hasten to the depot or 
the landing. Children taught to " remember 
the Sabbath day to keep it holy" are familiar- 



32 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 

ized with the hurry and excitement inseparable 
from the preparation and journey for a day in 
the woods. Home congregations are much 
depleted, often destroyed. The preacher, some- 
times glad of a day of rest, or anxious to hear 
a great sermon, or convinced by past expe- 
rience that his congregation will be but a frag- 
ment, '' takes time by the forelock," and spends 
the Sabbath at the encampment, thus leaving, 
frequently, the most reliable part of his mem- 
bership without their regular services. 

Many Sabbath-schools are left with few offi- 
cers or teachers, and the lesson for the day is 
ignored. A few scholars go to the camp- 
meeting, but most of them, as sheep without 
shepherd or fold, roam the streets, or, in imi- 
tation of their teachers, seek enjoyment in leafy 
groves or beside purling streams, and there, 
perhaps, take their first lesson in Sabbath- 
breaking. A few Sabbaths thus spent, and we 
are confronted with the inquiry, "■ What be- 
comes of our probationers?" or that other 
one, " How shall we retain our older scholars 
in the Sabbath-school ? " 

The pastor of one of our largest stations in 
a city near which are located several camp- 
grounds, writes as follows : '' We have had 
seven Sundays of camp-meeting nonsense and 

within ten miles of the city this year. 

I hope that the God of all mercy and grace 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath, 33 

will, by his infinite wisdom and omnipotence, 
prevent another such campaign, so far, at least, 
as the evil is concerned." This testimony, 
thus tersely put, accords with a large amount 
received by the writer from all parts of our 
connection. The picture may be as uninviting 
to the reader as to the author ; but if the study 
of our history, institutions, and economy is 
simply for self-glorification rather than self- 
improvement, our movements will be back- 
ward and downward rather than forward and 
upward. 

In a preceding paragraph we traced the Sab- 
bath camp-visitor to the station or landing. 
The public conveyance, crowded so full as fre- 
quently to endanger the lives and limbs of the 
swaying multitude found in its seats, standing 
in its aisles, or clinging to its guards, rushes 
on, stopping only to increase its mingled bur- 
den of virtuous and vicious humanity ; or, as 
during the month of August of this year, to 
disgorge some of its pleasure-seeking excur- 
sionists, who have taken advantage of the spe- 
cial train and cheap rates to visit the beer gar- 
dens of a large city through which the train 
passed. 

In the meantime engineers, firemen, brake- 
men, conductors, baggage-masters^ ticket- 
agents, and telegraph operators are forced to 
follow their usual vocation on the Lord's day ; 



34 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 

thusdisobeyinghis command, violating civil law, 
and becoming disqualified, by physical exhaus- 
tion, for careful service on the days that follow. 

Horses are over-driven and their care-takers 
overworked, as are cooks, clerks, and servants 
at the encampment ; and the quiet of vast com- 
munities — ^so conducive to a devotional spirit 
— is disturbed, if not destroyed. The passen- 
gers from the most distant points sometimes 
spend three or four hours on the road, in con- 
tact with questionable influences, and arrive 
at the meeting with poor preparation to listen 
to the sermon about to be delivered, or, as 
is frequently the case,, already half finished. 

The railroad authorities congratulate them- 
selves on having done a pious thing in thus 
carrying, at reduced rates^ so many persons to 
religious service, among whom are numbers of 
their own employes. In their own estimation 
they have really done a work of supereroga- 
tion, and on the following Sabbath carry an 
equal number to the sea-^side or the mountain 
top. Reminded of their wrong-doing, they 
justify themselves and publish their own in- 
consisteiicy by declaring that " the real object 
of the camp visitors was identical with that of 
those going to the sea-side, though ostensibly 
different. And, hence, if right to run the train 
in one case it was in the other." The Church 
member thus riding to the camp will find less 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath, 35 

of conscience with which to protest against the 
sea-side excursion. Though there is much 
sophistry in the railroad apologists' reasoning, 
there is sufficient truth to cause the Church to 
call a halt, and, in order to meet squarely and 
successfully the most important question in 
American ethics, '' to heal herself," '' by ab- 
staining from the very appearance of evil." 

That the train run to the encampment is a 
regular one, and hence would have gone if no 
camp-meeting had been held, only increases 
the responsibility of camp authorities; since, 
by making their grounds accessible to those 
arriving on such trains, they furnish the rail- 
road authorities an excuse, which for similar 
reasons may be applied to other sections of 
their road and other Sabbaths of the year, and 
thus to every section of their road, and every 
Sabbath of the year. 

But what of those going by private convey- 
ance? We answer, that in proportion as they 
journey unnecessarily to reach public worship, 
(of which fact their Bible-educated consciences 
must judge,) and in so doing subject them- 
selves to dissipating influences, and exact un- 
necessary labor from the brutes that furnish 
the motive power, do they displease God, injure 
their own souls, and by example damage pub- 
lic morals. Nay, more : the camp-meeting as- 
sociation furnishing the occasion for, and in- 



36 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 

ducement to, such wrong-doing must share 
largely in its penalty. Well has one said, " Sab- 
bath worship is a local matter, and persons 
should stay on the Lord's day where they are ; 
going only, as a rule, to the nearest place of 
prayer. Christ tarried over Sabbath at Beth- 
any on his way to Jerusalem, and that, too, in 
passover week." If this rule, to which there 
are exceptions, would prevent people from 
traveling several miles in country or city, and 
passing as many weak Churches of their own 
faith in order to reach a strong one, and thus 
escape burdens, and find a flock wearing the 
same quality of wool as themselves, then amen ! 
and amen ! ! 

If the Sabbath-day's journey (less than a 
mile) of the old Jewish Rabbins were made the 
limit of our Sabbath traveling, though it might 
savor of the ceremonial law that ended in Christ, 
or be a potent reminder of the forged Blue 
Laws of Connecticut, it might, nevertheless, be 
promotive of man's happiness and God's glory. 
" Remember the Sabbath (not seventh) day to 
keep it holy," belongs to the moral code, which 
Christ came ^' not to destroy, but to fulfill." In 
harmony with this saying was his declaration 
that "the Sabbath was made for many Not 
simply to the Jew, but to mankind in all ages 
and countries, does it extend its beneficent pro- 
visions for rest and worship. 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. ^y 

At the encampment, people of both sexes, of 
all ages, sizes, and complexions, of all religions 
and of none, by hundreds, frequently by thou- 
sands, sometimes by tens of thousands, with ap- 
petites for the " bread that perisheth " whetted 
to keenness by an early breakfast and a long 
ride, listen to a sermon, or a piece of one, or, as 
is often true in such cases, to none. They have 
come with mixed motives, and quickly become 
the victims of an aimless reverie, or the active 
participants in a shameless revelry. They 
crowd the grounds, throng the aisles, elbow the 
tents and their occupants, and, by an aggre- 
gated vastness, paralyze all attempts of the po- 
lice to maintain a quiet in harmony with the 
objects of the day, and render all aggressive 
effort for Christ difficult, if not impossible. 
The sermon ended, they march and counter- 
march in single, double, and parallel columns. 
They file right and left by ones and twos, by 
platoons, companies, and even regiments, till 
the moist earth becomes mud, and the dry 
earth dust. Armed with partners, and ac- 
coutered with hampers, whips, canes, and can- 
teens, they are more terrible to those seeking 
spiritual results than would be " an army Avith 
banners." The wood surrounding the encamp- 
ment is filled at an early hour with those who 
came to '' sit down to eat and drink, and then 
rise up to play." Here, in groups varying from 



y^ 



A 



38 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 

couples to dozens, they spread their dinners, 
accompanied often with intoxicating drinks. 
This is followed by smoking, jesting, merry- 
making, and sometimes gaming, reminding the 
passer-by of a French cafl or a German beer 
garden. At the boarding tent door are vast 
throngs, ready to crowd and be crowded in or- 
der to secure their rights, the pasteboard 
pledge of which has been bought and paid for 
on this Sabbath day, perhaps during divine 
service. Often the crowding is continued to a 
second, third, and fourth table, extending into 
the hour of afternoon worship, so large is the 
number of hungry and impatient visitors. Then, 
too, the restaurant, supplied with the luxuries 
of the season as well as with the necessaries of 
the hour, finds constant patronage, often no 
regard being paid to the hour of service. This 
is so, first, because of the large number of per- 
sons who have been induced to come on the 
Sabbath day, and who, unfortunately for the 
cause of Christ, could not leave their appetites 
at home, nor yet be fed with the ease and or- 
der that characterized the feeding of the five 
thousand ; and, secondly, because the boarding 
house and restaurants are leased to men at 
so high a rate as to compel the renter to take 
every advantage or lose money. 

Tent holders and cottage owners complain 
that the Sabbath, so far from being a day of 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 39 

rest and worship, becomes a day for social en- 
tertainment, bodily fatigue, and spiritual wast- 
ing. Those longing for the conversion of 
souls, the strengthening of believers, and a re- 
flex influence on the Churches of the district, 
have learned to sadly forebode the Sabbath. 
They are frequently compelled to see the fire, 
blown to a blaze on the preceding days, sud- 
denly extinguished : the Master wounded in 
the house of his friends, and the enemy in 
possession of a decisive victory. The few hear 
or remember the sermons: the many, not 
coming for that purpose, hear but little and re- 
member less. They have talked on every sub- 
ject but Christ and his cause. They reach 
their homes at a late hour ; if members of the 
Church, with upbraiding consciences ; if not, 
with at least degraded notions of the Sabbath 
and its defenders. It may be urged that God's 
people, though but a handful, with God on their 
side, should be able to captivate these teeming 
multitudes by means of the Gospel charm ; but 
let it be remembered that many of them are 
members of some Church, not a few of our 
own, yet most of them, sad to say, are satisfied 
with present attainments in grace, and have 
seized upon the occasion afl'orded by a great 
Church for a Sabbath of animal content : the 
occasion forming, also, the excuse. The bal- 
ance of them, having no vows to pay, congrat- 



40 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 

ulate themselves on being as good as these bas- 
ket-bearing, Sabbath-journeying, merry-making 
Christians ; and, asking only for stones, scorpi- 
ons, and serpents, because they look like bread, 
eggs, and fish, of course get what they ask, 
but not what they need. Such a camp-meet- 
ing is not attractive to those of most vigorous 
faith, nor do they as tent-holders attend in 
great numbers. The few earnest workers pres- 
ent meet these Sabbath-coming throngs with 
a painful consciousness of the weakness of 
their own faith; weak, because the conditions 
of faith had not been met, either in the mo- 
tives that prompted the conception of the 
enterprise or in its subsequent management. 
Hence, instead of overawing and overpower- 
ing these unsaved multitudes, they, for the 
time being, are readily absorbed by and as- 
similated to them. 

The encampment may be the embodiment 
of secular respectability and good order, and 
yet the religious impressions be few and fleet- 
ing, and the spiritual results be very inadequate 
to the outlay of effort and means. 

The writer will never forget the sorrowful, 
yet ludicrous, discomfiture of the praying ones 
at an evening service, the closing one of a day 
such as he has described. The sermon was 
one of seeming power, by one of the most 
vigorous and thoughtful of our young men. 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 41 

The responsive ejaculations were earnest and 
apparently unctuous. The fifty ministers pres- 
ent seemed ready to respond to the ardent 
appeals made by the leader at the close of the 
sermon, for personal effort in the congrega- 
tion. The invitation was given to sinners to 
come to the altar, but most of them turned 
their backs upon it, and joined their comrades 
in the outskirts in talking, promenading, smok- 
ing, * flirting, or hurrying homeward. At the 
end of an hour, during which grave doctors of 
divinity had paced the aisles, and staid pre- 
siding elders had rubbed their hands in pious 
desire, and there had been much singing, ex- 
hortation, and prayer, we looked for results, and 
found at the altar one little girl — only one — 
a member of the Church, who had backslidden, 
perhaps at the camp-meeting, and wanted re- 
newing, an experience into which she could have 
been easily led by pastor, leader, or teacher, 
in the home, the class, or the Sabbath-school. 
True, we may count effort as well as achieve- 
ment ; and bread cast upon the waters may be 
gathered ma^iy days hence ; and a bow drawn 
at a venture may send an arrow somewhere ; 
and a little Sunday-school girl is not to be 
despised ; but do not revelation and reason 
conspire to affirm that so small an apparent 
harvest, after so much apparent sowing, pred- 
icates a fault somewhere? That fault is not 



42 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 

in the seed, nor yet wholly in the soil, but in the 
sowing. If those who are responsible for the 
management of the meeting do by open gates 
encourage Sunday trains, Sunday throngs, and 
Sunday holidays ; if they offer the occasion 
for a Sunday gathering of unwieldy propor- 
tions, most of the individuals of which have 
come, as to a county fair, to see and be seen ; 
they need not wonder at their own inability 
to exercise the faith so necessary in appro- 
priating the motive power that alone can drive 
the machinery of human endeavor. If they 
induce great numbers to spend many hours of 
the holy Sabbath, in journeying and conse- 
quent dissipation, that should be spent at 
their home churches in devotional worship, let 
them bear the opprobrium that follows defeat. 
But, alas ! not only do those unsaved remain 
unsaved, but in those of the household of faith 
is begotten a degraded estimate of the Sab- 
bath, the precursor of a spiritual decay that 
ends in spiritual death. 

He who may, but does not, prevent a wrong, 
is certainly an accomplice of the wrong-doer ; 
and individual members of a corporation can- 
not evade responsibility for the sins of that cor- 
poration. St. Paul recognized the sin of unnec- 
essarily furnishing to others the occasion for 
sinning, when he declared, " If meat make my 
brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 43 

world standeth." That is, '' Rather than give 
occasion for a Christian to sin against, and so 
to harden, his conscience, that he should return 
to idolatry and perish, I would not only ab- 
stain from all meats offered to idols, but I would 
eat no flesh, should I exist through the whole 
course of time ; but would live on the herbs of 
the field rather than cause my brother to stum- 
ble and fall into idolatry and final ruin." So, 
if open gates at camp-meeting on Sabbath 
furnish the occasion for a great amount of evil, 
not balanced by a great amount of good, and 
help the enemies of the Sabbath to arguments 
and instruments for its destruction, let the 
gates be closed. Further : if necessary to the 
protection of the sanctity of that day, let camp- 
meetings be abolished and no more be held 
" while the world stands," for, as another has 
said, " We can do without camp-meetings, but 
cannot do without the Sabbath." It may 
be said, that while there is much evil incident 
to open gates and large crowds, there is, also, 
much good. This is true; souls are sometimes 
converted in great numbers, while others re- 
ceive impressions that lead to conversion. It 
is also true, that great truths uttered by great 
men find a ready hearing by thousands of at- 
tentive listeners ; but the most careful observ- 
ers are quite unanimous in the opinion that 
the evil far outweighs the good, and that every 



44 Camp-meetings -and the Sabbath. 

attempt to solve the question under the rule 
of profit and loss leaves a fearful balance in the 
debit column. 

It is said that " The wicked, if not at camp- 
meeting, would be somewhere, engaging in 
their wickedness.'* Perhaps so; but is it even 
politic to provide for them the means to mass 
and marshal such forces as, in the very nature 
of the case, the Christian hosts cannot success- 
fully attack, nor yet maintain the ground previ- 
ously occupied? Is it wise to help them to 
destroy the corner-stone of Christianity by the 
agencies employed in thus enabling them to 
concentrate their armies? Would it not be 
wiser to encourage — if need be, to compel, as 
far as we may — the observance of that day 
without which all is lost ; and at the same time 
leave the armies of the enemy at their homes, 
to be divided and attacked in detail by the 
Church, on this day when all her soldiers are 
under arms, her arsenals open, and her batter- 
ies unmasked ? If even wise to congregate 
an undue proportion of the unconverted at 
camp-meetings, is not that time the most ap- 
propriate, when — there being no worship in 
their homes — they are withdrawn from the 
seductive influences of the bar-room, the sa- 
loon, and the brothel ? In short, on some sec- 
ular day of the week ? 

This leads us to notice another objection to 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 45 

closed gates, namely : " Many of the poor, who 
must labor hard for the support of their fami- 
lies, should have an opportunity to engage in 
the delightful services of the camp on the 
Sabbath day, and hear sermons from the rep- 
resentative men of the Church." This would 
have some force, if these poor people did not 
take time for rest, recreation, or amusement 
at will. The picnic, menagerie, and horse- 
race — or, what is the same, the county fair — 
attract them from their w^ork and wages, and 
lead to the spending of much money previously 
earned ; carrying corporations sometimes fur- 
nish transportation gratis to their e^nploycs to 
visit places of amusement, and might be in- 
duced to do as much for religious meetings, 
if those desiring to attend manifested as much 
interest in the latter as in the former. If, for 
mere recreation, many days' wages are sacri- 
ficed, while for religious privileges one day's 
wage is regarded too much, we may reasona- 
bly infer that they choose the Sabbath camp- 
meetings rather than the menagerie as a place 
of amusement, both because they can do so, 
and, because, in so doing they retain a measure 
of self-respect and the respect of those who, 
in the name of religion, entice them to at- 
tend. But if going to the camp-meeting on 
Sabbath be productive of more harm than good, 
let them remain at home, even though *' they 



46 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath, 

die without the sight." Many who never saw 
a camp-meeting have lived usefully and died 
triumphantly. 

It is further objected, that to close the gates 
on the Sabbath is to antagonize one darling 
specialty embraced in the ** whosoever-will " 
invitation, and thus to do violence to the 
genius of Methodism. But common sense 
would say, and revelation would not contra- 
dict it, Admit only such members, and at such 
times, as will enable those who are responsible 
for the success of the meeting to accomphsh, 
in the most decisive way, the object for which 
the meeting was organized. Jesus, when he 
had a great work to do, sometimes ** put out " 
those who were already in. Popular metropol- 
itan Churches, such as Spurgeon's, Beecher's, 
Moody's, and Talmage's, claim this right, 
and are sustained by public sentiment. Meth- 
odism, in her early history and latest law, ad- 
mitted to some of her services only those 
who held tickets, and those only at certain 
hours. This did not prevent her people from 
singing, 

" The happy gates of gospel grace 
Stand open night and day ; " 

nor did it endanger the freedom of the truth. 

It is objected, again, that very high fences 
must be built, and even then noisy throngs 
would loiter without, to the annoyance of 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 47 

those within. This objection, with many oth 
ers equally puerile, finds easy refutation in the 
history of the few associations that close their 
gates, as, also, in the provisions of common 
law that make " every man's house his castle," 
and attach penalties to the commission of nui- 
sances. Finally, one answer covers all objec- 
tions : " Remember the Sabbath day, to keep 
it holy." 

" Fresh glides the brook and blows the gale, 

But yonder halts the quiet mill ; 
The whirring wheel, the rushing sail, 

How motionless and still ! 
So rest, O weary heart ; but lo! 

The church spire glistening up to heaven, 
To warn thee where thy thoughts should go 

The day thy God hath given." — Bulwer. 



48 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath, 



CHAPTER IV. 

Camp-Meetings : their Utility further Considered —Argu- 
ments AND Objections Answered. 

NO argument sustaining the utility of the 
camp-meeting, properly conducted, is 
any longer necessary, since not only have the 
objections urged fifty years ago to the camp- 
meeting /^r^^ been abandoned; but, like many 
other good things introduced by Methodism, 
this institution has been adopted — sometimes 
re-christened — by those who once most vehe- 
mently denounced — or most bitterly derided it. 

Yet there are many persons, among whom 
are prominent ministers and laymen in our 
own Church, who, as the result of careful ob- 
servation, believe that camp-meetings, aggre- 
gating them, as conducted for several years last 
past, have injured rather than aided the cause 
of Christ. Evidently this belief grows out of 
the perversions of the institution. This is the 
result of the indifference of the Church in its 
organic character to that which, if neglected, 
degenerates and degrades, while, if cared for, 
appreciates and benefits. 

It is also said that if the one milHon and a 
half of dollars spent by Methodists alone each 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 49 

year in connection with camp-meetings, found 
instead the channels of local Church enter- 
prise and connectional benevolence, preachers 
would be paid, churches be saved from the 
sheriff's clutch, church extension take a new 
departure, and our missionary debt be quickly 
liquidated. All true, if the premise be true. 
But the objection is based on a hypothesis not 
likely to be met. On the other hand, this 
amount would doubtless be used for a species 
of self-gratification more inconsistent with our 
profession, if possible, than that prompted even 
by the average modern camp-meeting. 

The objections based on '^ Sabbath desecra- 
tion," " money mania," and other immorali- 
ties and irregularities, lie not against the insti- 
tution, but against the incidental and unneces- 
sary evils ; since actual experience has demon- 
strated our ability to successfully conduct such 
meetings shorn of these evils. 

We need camp-meetings to neutralize the self- 
ishness that ever threatens local Churches long 
isolated, and to strengthen the connectional 
bond, without which our peculiar form of gov- 
ernment tends to disintegration ; to organize, 
from forces varied as are the localities whence 
they come, an influence that like the Damas- 
cus blade, forged from ores brought from many 
and distant mines, may aid the Gospel in 
'' piercing even to the dividing asunder of 



50 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 

soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow." 
We can use them as magnets, to wholly with- 
draw for a time the minds of the unconverted 
from the secularizing influences of the farm, 
the mine, the shop, and the counting-room, 
and thus converge on these frozen hearts the 
unobstructed rays of '' the Sun of Righteous- 
ness." Or, to change the figure, to bruise and 
break these flinty hearts by repeated and long- 
continued strokes from the gospel hammer. 

The statement that at fifty large camp-meet- 
ings held in one yeaf, by associations owning an 
aggregate of over four hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars worth of property, and securing the 
attendance of eight thousand tent holders, with 
an estimated attendance of one million transient 
visitors, there should be less than one thou- 
sand conversions, and a general wail from the 
pastors of Churches laboring near the encamp- 
ments because their people had been demoral- 
ized and society injured, is not necessarily a 
reflection on camp-meetings, but on our im- 
proper methods of holding them. If, like chil- 
dren tickled with their toys, we have become 
so infatuated with the magnitude and glitter 
of our machinery as to forget to appropriate 
by faith the motive-power without which it re- 
mains an inert mass of polished deformity, it is 
no fault of the machinery, but of those who 
run it. May God save us from another such 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 5 1 

record! A thousand souls! it would be sac- 
rilege to attempt an estimate of their value, 
but, all other things being equal, ten thousand 
souls are more valuable. As a denomination 
we have grown great notwithstanding, rather 
than because of, our follies. It is but natural 
to suppose that we should have grown greater 
had those' follies been timely corrected. 

Camp-meetings should do for our people 
during the busy summer what revival efforts 
do for them during the winter, namely, bring 
the constitutionally indifferent and sluggish in 
contact with those who live near God, and 
whose glowing faces and impassioned hearts 
are alike a benediction and a doxology to those 
who see the brightness of the one and feel the 
throbbing pulsations of the other. They thus 
practically apply the principle of '' the strong 
bearing the infirmities of the weak," by helping 
the latter to a new lease of spiritual life. 

They should afford opportunity for our peo- 
ple, though far removed from the metropolis, to 
hear sermons from the best talent of the Church. 

They should, also, be schools of observation 
and drill for those who desire to become pro- 
ficient in the art of soul-saving ; for here should 
be most prominent the labors of those who, by 
their long service and marked successes, are 
recognized as experts in this most important 
branch of our Master's husbandry. 



52 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 

They ought to be centers of spiritual light 
and heat, whence should radiate an influence 
to the surrounding Churches that will kindle 
revival fires and bring increased interest to the 
regular services. If prayer and class-meetings, 
Sunday-school and preaching service, do not 
have a better attendance and more unction 
after than before camp-meeting, it has been a 
failure. 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 53 



CHAPTER V. 

How TO MAKE THE CAMP-MEETING SUCCESSFUL— SCAFFOLDING— POP- 
ULAR Resorts— Reasons for Closing Gates on Sabbath. 

IT is not enough that the act of incorpora- 
tion makes the object of the camp-meeting 
association to provide for and hold a camp- 
meeting annually for a named conference, dis- 
trict, or circuit, since the modern perversion of 
the meaning of the term " camp-meeting " is 
evidence that, though bearing the name, it can 
■ be transformed into a mere theater for amuse- 
ment, recreation, or speculation, with just 
enough religion to make it respectable, and, in 
some sense, profitable. Let the grounds be 
deeded, as some of them already are, '' in trust, 
to be kept, maintained, and disposed of as a 
place of divine worship for the use of the min- 
istry and membership of the -Methodist Epis- 
copal Church in the United States of America, 
subject to its discipline," etc. If this depart- 
ment of the Church is not subject to its dis- 
cipline, " neither, indeed, can be," then so 
much the worse for the Church. 

The circuit camp-meeting generally was, and, 
where still held, is, the creature of the quarterly 
conference. Its managers are members of that 



54 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 

body, elected by* it, or at least amenable to it ; 
so every camp-meeting association that bears 
our name, tacitly or expressly, should be an- 
swerable in some way to our Church, that, 
bearing its faults and foibles, we may also cor- 
rect its mxistakes, and have a chance at least to 
protect our interests. 

Most modern associations are organized for 
the accommodation of one or more presiding 
elders' districts. Let the members of the as- 
sociation consist, then, of the presiding elder 
or elders, and preachers of the district or dis- 
tricts, together with one layman from each 
charge, to be appointed by the quarterly con- 
ference each year, while an executive commit- 
tee can be invested with full power to act in 
all matters which shall promote the objects of 
the association. Or, if this seems too unwieldy, 
let some other plan be adopted, by which Meth- 
odism shall control her own, and at the same 
time secure the co-operation of those most 
interested. To attempt to manage a Church, 
or, what should be as securely guarded, a camp- 
meeting, on the stock principle — with the pos- 
sibility (already realized in some places) of 
infidels, drunkards, liquor-dealerS, and game- 
sters becoming its stockholders and even di- 
rectors, and thus the ultimate authority in its 
management — is an insult to our ministry and 
membership. If the Church in its organic 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 55 

capacity is not enough interested to inaugu- 
rate and continue a camp-meeting, it will 
scarcely appreciate or sustain one organized 
by self-constituted representatives, even though 
they be the most worthy of our communion. 

But, again, provision should be made for 
extending a hearty welcome to the poorest of 
our people, by furnishing ground on which, if 
they choose, to pitch their humble tents, es- 
tablish their own commissary, and spread their 
own table ; for here is a sanctuary^ in which 
the rich and poor should meet together, recog- 
nizing God as "the maker of them all." If there 
be any place in our polity where, more than an- 
other, gold rings and goodly apparel should 
count nothing in determining preferment, let 
that place be the camp-meeting. Here " the 
poor of this world, chosen rich in faith and 
heirs of the kingdom," should find sweetest 
sympathy and most tender affection from 
those more favored with wealth. Here, dis- 
tant from the asperities of business and the 
ever-varying, and in many cases most un- 
reasonable, conflicts between labor and capi- 
tal, should be exorcised the spirit of caste 
that in so many hearts threatens to dominate 
the spirit of Christ. 

Inasmuch as " sowing to the flesh " is no 
part of the object of a Methodist camp-meet- 
ing, let the preparations for the physical man 



56 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 

be of that subdued character that good taste 
would approve in rendering them subordinate 
to spiritual results. Restaurants at the en- 
trance, with flaming placards and a dazzling 
display of confectionery, interlarded with the 
somber shades of tobacco and cigars, are potent 
reminders of the palate and stomach rather 
than of the heart and conscience, and do much 
to encourage those who have been ** filthy to 
be filthy still." 

That the purposes of a camp-meeting and 
those of a mere resort are entirely dissimilar 
will readily be admitted by all whose concur- 
rence can help our cause. Experience shows 
the difficulty of saying successfully, " Thus far 
resort, but no further." "Presto!" ''Change!" 
" Camp-meeting ten days." They that have 
sought amusement will seek it still. This dif- 
ficulty grows out of the law of continuity, the 
force of habit, or, if you please, the initial 
motive in coming to the encampment, and usu- 
ally renders the attempt to combine the resort 
and the camp-meeting not only abortive, but 
sadly ludicrous. Thus mixed, it becomes too 
religious for a resort, and not enough so for a 
camp-meeting. 

To enforce the rules making it the duty of 
tent-holders and visitors to come into the con- 
gregation, to cease talking and promenading, 
and to regard with feelings of devotion the 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 57 

place where they have been permitted to talk, 
laugh, smoke, and perhaps play games, is to 
drive them from the grounds, since they were 
invited to come for physical recreation, and 
justice demands freedom. To fail to enforce 
the rules, or to have none — which is fre- 
quently the case — is to show our ability to 
begin a farce and end a tragedy. 

To call that a Methodist camp-meeting 
which is so conducted as merely to escape the 
penalties of civil law, receive applause for re- 
spectability from the secular press, and barely 
prevent our own members from backsliding, 
while little or no aggressive movement Is made 
toward the conversion of sinners, is a reproach 
to the Church, and a sad reminder of departed 
glory. In this hurrying age we need popular 
resorts, where, withdrawn from secular callings, 
business perils, domestic cares, and even liter- 
ary pursuits, we may rest and recreate without 
hazarding reputation, character, or fortune, by 
contact with the gaming, drunkenness, and ex- 
travagance so prevalent at fashionable hostel- 
ries. But we need not call them camp-meet- 
ings, nor " hold the fort " till midnight, nor 
sleep on our arms, nor yet form " in line " at 
daylight ; nor need we condemn ourselves if, 
through our instrumentality, all the health- 
seekers should not be converted ; nor yet suf- 
fer the loss that always falls on the Church 



58 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 

when she sounds the reveille, arrays herself for 
conquest, and is defeated. 

Our theology is of the heroic kind, that rec- 
ognizes an ability and willingness on God's part 
to do any thing in the realm of the spiritual 
that in faith we ask him to do. There can be 
no failure in the performance of his part of the 
contract, but that which grows out of our ne- 
glect. Hence, to attempt to have a revival at 
camp or at home, and fail, is to publish our 
shame. Therefore, let us have camp-meetings, 
and let us have resorts, but let them never be 
married, or, if already joined, let them be di- 
vorced, and thus save a venerable institution 
of our beloved Zion from the degradation to- 
ward which it is rapidly tending. 

As a rule, to which, as already intimated, 
there may be exceptions, we should fence our 
encampments, and keep the gates closed on 
Sabbath to all save those who live in the im- 
mediate neighborhood, and here find Church 
accommodations. These may be admitted on 
Sabbath morning, at a given hour, on tickets 
issued on Saturday. These restrictions should 
be adopted : — 

I. For the purpose of defeating Sabbath 
haters, who visit our encampments for the same 
reason that they visit beer-gardens, and say. 
Give us, under protection of law, at all times, 
the privileges that we enjoy under the auspices 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 59 

of the Methodist Episcopal and other Churches 
for a few Sabbaths each year, and we will be 
content. 

2. For the protection of those who through 
sacrifice are regularly domiciled on the ground, 
and have outlined for themselves solid work 
for God and humanity, which should not be 
interfered with by an aimless, tramping multi- 
tude. 

3. To save from disorganization and demor- 
alization the Churches and communities of the 
patronizing territory. 

4. That we may continue in practice what 
we have always been in theory, namely, firm 
advocates of Sabbath observance. Thus we 
should keep our Church in the advance line on 
this, as on every great moral question, which 
at no distant day may shake our country from 
center to circumference. 

5. To increase the number of regular attend- 
ants, and proportionately increase the chances 
of successful meetings, since success depends 
less on the transient crowds than on the num- 
ber who yield to continuously hearing the word 
and meditating upon it. 

6. To secure the revenue necessary for current 
expenses ; because then, instead of thousands 
with baskets bringing their own dinner on Sab- 
bath, and thus making a picnic ground of the 
encampment at the expense of the association, 



6o Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 

while apartments erected for renting are unoc- 
cupied, all rooms would be taken at fair rates, 
and at least several meals purchased by each 
person, thus solving one of the vexed problems 
connected with camp-meeting enterprises. But, 
if the reverse should prove true, and money be 
lost, take it as a providential indication, either 
that the supply of camp-meetings is in excess 
of the demand, or that, like our Churches, they 
should be supported by the contributions of 
those who believe in their utility, and enjoy 
their privileges. 

7. It would enable us to admonish our peo- 
ple, especially the young, against the Sabbath 
vagrancy now so prevalent where the camp- 
meeting term is long, and thus save them and 
others from the dissipation that brings us face 
to face with the question, '' What becomes of 
our probationers?" 

8. It would show '' a decent respect for the 
opinions of mankind," since we have failed by 
the aggregate results of modern camp-meet- 
ings, or by our attempted defense, to declare 
any good cause impelling us to the course we 
have pursued. 

In short, as another has said, " It would, by 
removing all occasion for their arising, solve 
every vexed question of law, of morals, and 
of propriety, by which we are now troubled." 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 6i 



CHAPTER VI. 

Altak 'Woek— Seed ajnd Hakyest— Polly Scroggs— Pkepaeation 
AXD coxcEXTRATiox— Personal Effort- Dress— Cause and Ef- 
fect— Conclusion. 

THE best type of our membership, those 
most loved where best known, men and 
women of deep piety, sound judgment, and 
warm hearts, should, at the camp-meeting as at 
the home church, do the altar work. Seed is a 
prophecy of harvest, in kind as in quantity. The 
men with whom God plants a nation determine 
largely the character and spirit of those to follow 
through the onsweeping centuries. The men 
who organize a Church, do, by a species of nat- 
ural selection — the power of affinity — gather 
men of like spirit to its services and sacraments. 
Likewise, as a rule, those who lead in revival 
effort attract those to the altar of like origin, 
history, and temperament. We would not ex- 
clude the poorest outcast from our sympathies 
and prayer, but every-where are found those 
whose repeated visits to our vestal fires for re- 
newing have not helped them, but have hin- 
dered the cause. Private instruction or class- 
room drill is what they need, rather than the 
display incident to altar work in the public con- 
gregation. Our zeal for the "whosoever" 



62 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath 

idea has frequently made our revival meetings 
a mob, instead of a well-disciplined army with 
a place for every soldier, and every soldier in 
his place. Preachers, fearing to ''offend one of 
these little ones," sometimes allow the most 
unstable and characterless people of the neigh- 
borhood to monopolize, year after year, the at- 
tention of the membership as ^?/<3;^2-penitents, 
and afterward that of the congregation as chief 
instructors. 

Polly Scroggs — called Polly, I presume, be- 
cause she was a repeater — was first at the altar in 
her home church at every revival for three succes- 
sive years. Scrubtown, where she stayed — when 
not somewhere else — changed itinerants each 
year ; and Polly, to the delight of the recently- 
arrived pastor, and the infinite disgust of the 
congregation — including many thoughtful sin- 
ners, whose conviction had not thus far suffi- 
ciently neutralized their sense of the ludicrous 
to force them to the mourner's bench in such 
company — never failed to take advantage of 
the new pastor's strange surroundings, and 
start the revival, in the capacity of what the 
wicked boys called a " stool pigeon." Polly 
was known to have a fondness for camp-meet- 
ings ; and as each of the fifty pastoral charges 
represented at the camp-meeting had at least 
one of her kind, none of whom in one sense 
were given to living beneath their privilege, 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 63 

advantage was taken of the strange preachers 
and people to seek reHgion a fourth time, and 
thus secure more attention than they had 
either deserved or commanded since last camp- 
meeting, or than they will receive before the 
next one. By this repeated public repentance 
they are not helped, while the cause is hin- 
dered. It justly renders the meeting a by- 
word and a jest for those unfriendly to us, 
drives better people to other Churches, and 
pains beyond measure those who are solicitous 
for the greatest prosperity of the Church of 
their choice. All this can be avoided by an 
early organization of the best working talent 
from the various charges, led by a man who 
knows his duty and is not afraid to do it. 

Experience has taught us the importance of 
concentration in revival effort. No thoughtful 
pastor would secure the services of thirty 
preachers to preach as many sermons at a 
meeting to be held but ten days ; because, first, 
the curiosity of those he hoped to reach would 
rival their faith ; constant novelty would pro- 
mote diffusion of thought and loss of power. 
Secondly, if this were not so, and the tide of 
feeling should steadily rise in the congregation, 
the newly arrived preacher would not find him- 
self in sympathy with the spirit of the meeting, 
which is necessarily a growth as well as a gift. 
If sin, nature, grace, the Gospel, those who 



64 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 

preach it and those who need it, are at camp- 
meeting what they are at home, then the 
methods so often adopted at the former are an 
admirable indication of ''how not to do it." 
The time is past in this gospel-ribbed land for 
great revivals in church or camp without elab- 
orate preparation. True, without it we may 
skim the froth of society, and repeat the proc- 
ess on the same scum year after year, to the 
disgust of sensible people in the Church and 
out of it, and thus drive from us those who 
could help the cause of Christ, or be helped 
by it. Long preparations and short meetings 
will, as a rule, accomplish more than short 
preparations and long meetings. 

Exhaustive public effort, that leaves little vi- 
tality for the regular means of grace or for the 
fusing and molding of the crude material thus 
brought to the Master's workshop, may signal- 
ize defeat rather than victory. Tidal waves 
may lift us higher than the ordinary level, but 
must supplement rather than supplant the 
steady sailing that bears us further. 

Steady, persistent work, enlisting the largest 
possible number of our members, and subsidiz- 
ing all our resources, spiritual, social, financial, 
political, and domestic — under a pastorate 
limited only by law as to time and by human 
endurance as to intensity — is the demand of 
our time, rather than the ephemeral effort too 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 65 

often indulged to mask the inefficiency of a 
long-continued indifference. 

Every-where are those who have become 
familiar with the saber flash of the cavalry 
charge, and stand in serried lines, repelling year 
after year our spasmodic attempts to capture 
them for Christ. Many of them are our most 
staunch and reHable people, perhaps members 
of our congregations, supporters of our preach- 
ers, and contributors to our benevolences. If 
ever they are taken it will be by the siege 
process ; man for man ; spirit against spirit ; 
magnetism versus magnetism ; visits often re- 
peated ; prayers fervently offered ; a specific 
faith for a specific case ; letters filled with ten- 
der affection ; in fact, a hand to hand conflict, 
in which the Christian warrior, his heart on 
fire with love, shall feel '' this may be my last 
chance, but, be it so or not, this soul for Christ, 
if it takes a life." 

Of course, the work may be consummated 
from the pulpit, or at the altar — probably will 
be ; or in the love-feast, class-room, or prayer- 
meeting. But the real work of dominating a 
stubborn will by the power of an omnipotent 
love is done elsewhere. True, it is not inde- 
pendent of the means of grace named, since 
here, coupled with long-continued secret devo- 
tion, we get our prophecy and promise of suc- 
cess, as also our inspiration to achieve it. 



^6 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 

May the time never come when our altar 
fires and camp fires shall be extinguished ! 
May it soon come when every-where extra 
effort shall be preceded by extra preparation 
long continued ; and supplemented by extra 
care of the " new born babes " whose nursing 
is no mean part of the mother's duty and privi- 
lege. A camp-meeting to which ministers and 
members have not brought '* those who are al- 
most persuaded " may claim the blessing of not 
being disappointed, because little was expected. 

It is good to ** go a-fishing;" but while we 
use the seine and net let us not forget that there 
are game fish in abundance in the deeper waters 
that only a carefully baited hook, manipulated 
by an expert angler, can either catch or keep. 

Let us get ready for the camp-meeting by 
personal preparation ; by a more complete 
consecration of self to God ; by securing a 
keener realization of the fact that Christianity 
is not simply being, but doing: not pluming 
and grooming our own spiritual modes and 
moods, but — like Him whose name we bear — 
losing self to save others. 

Let us secure the attendance at our camp- 
meetings of as many as possible of those with 
and for whom we have previously been labor- 
ing and praying, assisting, if need be, to pro- 
vide for their bodily comfort while there. 

The entire camp might with profit be dis- 



Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 6^ 

tricted, and such a system of pastoral over- 
sight be established as that no unconverted 
person could remain on the ground for a day 
without being brought under the influence of 
the Gospel as preached in the personal appeals 
of loving hearts, as well as that proclaimed 
from the preachers* stand. 

Such extravagance in dress as will fix a bar- 
rier between the rich and the poor, and such 
provision for eating and drinking as will dull 
the spiritual perceptions and beget a sensual 
sloth, may well be discouraged. 

Rigid formalism at one extreme, and nause- 
ating cant at the other, may both be eliminated 
by impressing upon our people their privilege 
*'■ to walk, leap, and praise God," as well as to 
*^ speak with other tongues," if it be the result 
of a genuine cure of a long waiting in the 
*' upper room," or of the Spirit's agency in giv- 
ing them utterance. But also teach them not 
to attempt a reversal of God's order, by using 
the effect to produce the cause, since even the 
devil, dumb as he is, can discern the imbecility 
oi the physical contortions and incoherent ut- 
terances sometimes indulged in order to secure 
the presence of the Holy Ghost, and thus the 
good of the meeting. He comes not thus, nor 
is the meeting thus helped. 

But we hasten to conclude that which has 
grown far beyond our original purpose. Soon 



68 Camp-meetings and the Sabbath. 

the earthly house of these tabernacles will be 
dissolved, and the building of God not made 
with hands, will appear in the heavens. Soon 
shall we see the "great city, the holy Jerusa- 
lem, descending out of heaven from God." May 
its " street of pure gold, as it were transparent 
glass," echo our footfalls ! May the gates of 
pearl open wide at our approach, and the jas- 
per walls, with their twelve foundations, re-echo 
our song to the Lamb ! Soon beside '' the river 
of water of life," and beneath the far-reach- 
ing branches of "■ the tree of life," may writer 
and reader, having been "faithful unto death," 
" wear a crown of life !" But first, " the valley 
of the shadow " must we pass. Let us go, 
" fearing no evil," for our Shepherd's "rod and 
staff shall comfort " us. 

" There the crystalline stream, burstmg forth from the throne, 
Flows on, and forever will flow ; , 

Its waves as they roll are with melody rife. 
And its waters are sparkling with beauty and life, 
In the land which no mortal may know. 

" And there, on its margin, with leaves ever green, 

With its fruits healing sickness and woe, 
The fair tree of life, in its glory and pride. 
Is fed by that deep, inexhaustible tide, 

In the land which no mortal may know,** 



